Posted on 05/19/2024 12:01:24 PM PDT by jerod
As of April 29,179 people have been granted temporary visas under special Gaza program
Lawyers are questioning Canada's approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas.
The Canadian Press obtained a redacted letter sent to the applicant by a Canadian immigration officer, which asks if he has "ever provided medical care to injured Hamas members." If he has not, the letter asks him to say how he was able to refuse "without consequences."
Kelly O'Connor, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, said she gasped out loud when she saw the text. Any medical worker who denies care to someone hurt in a war zone is committing a "serious breach of the Geneva Convention," she said in an interview.
"It's completely outrageous that the government would ask these kinds of questions because it's trying to promote that someone would violate the Geneva Conventions in wartime, which is really not something that the Canadian military stands for," O'Connor said.
Visa applicants are already being asked "very invasive questions" in the process, she added. "And then seeing this letter? It's just really shocking."
The Canadian visa program has been mired in setbacks and controversy since it opened on Jan. 9. It is open to Canadian citizens and permanent residents hoping to get extended family members out of the Gaza Strip, where the war between Israel and Hamas has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
The war began after Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in Israel, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Israeli government.
Applicants to Canada's special temporary visa program must complete several steps. First, a relative in Canada must submit a "statutory declaration" indicating the family members in Gaza for whom they are seeking visas, as well as voluminous details about each member, including a description of scars and markings on their bodies, and a list of all the jobs they have held since they were 16 years old.
The questions go "above and beyond what is asked in a normal immigration application," O'Connor said.
The declarations are examined by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which then sends a unique code to each family member listed in the document. Those family members use their code to file a second batch of paperwork for a temporary visa. They must then somehow get from Gaza to the Canadian immigration office in Cairo, Egypt, to complete a final screening process.
More than 7,500 people submitted statutory declarations between Jan. 9 and April 1, according to data obtained through an access to information request. As of April 29, 179 people had been granted temporary visas...
Well they can’t very well get back to killing Jews without medical and financial aid from stupid libtards can they?
It’s a violation of the Geneva Convention NOT to treat the wounded regardless of military affiliation.
I was thinking that. It’s the right answer. But it won’t be popular.
Is there precedent for this kind of question, like “Did you provide assistance to Nazis” in the 1940’s? Seems like the kind of thing we would want to know about a person who wants refugee status.
The Geneva convention applies to civilians and military personnel. A Hamas terrorist is a murderer, and deserves no special consideration. The Geneva convention does not apply.
Can the person asking the question reliably distinguish between Hamas and Palestinians?
Were the Kanadian authorities referring to the Hamas fighters in Gaza or the Hamas fighters in Kanada?
This is a question even in Israel, where Israeli doctors are treating Hamas terrorists.
Presumably the follow up questions would relate to his relationship with Hamas. Joe will make sure we don't ask intrusive questions like this if he gets to bring terrorists here.
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